Crooks are cashing in on your use of apps like Venmo and Zelle

Many people no longer carry large or any amounts of cash on them. Now, we rely on apps on our phones to do things like pay our friends for lunch or pay our bills.

Crooks are cashing in on you using these apps. There’s a warning if you use some popular apps such as Venmo or Zelle. Cyber criminals have found a way to get their hands on some of that cash.

Using these apps means being susceptible to security vulnerabilities. Two of the ways that crooks are able to get their hands on your money are either by using malware giving them access to the app. Or, sometimes, they hack in when people are using free wifi and finding your usernames and passwords.

Once they gain access using your information, they start transferring money. Sometimes, they’ll change the email address on your account, so you won’t get notifications when they begin moving your money around.

Carrie Kerskie is a cybercrime expert and says you should take the extra security steps.

“You can set up a pin, or some sort of a code, so when you log in you have to enter that as well, so the more layers of protection you have the harder it is for a bad guy to hack into your account,” Kerskie said.

In addition to adding another layer of protection to your account, you should:

• verify details of every transfer
• avoid public wifi transfers
• adjust privacy settings

Another suggestion to keep you safe is to use a separate bank account for your transfer apps. Do this so if crooks do hack in, they’ll be limited to what’s in there, as long as you have overdraft protection turned off.